Testimonials

Dear SBFC,

It is finally time that we feel it is appropriate to write this review for Santa Barbara Fertility and Dr. Rene Allen and his staff. As you can tell, I write Yelp reviews from time to time but they are all pretty brief and to the point. For this review however, we (my wife and I) could write pages of comments and even after everything is all written down, we still wont be able to express our full experience and gratitude for Dr. Rene Allen and the staff at Santa Barbara Fertility. We are going to do our best to keep this review short enough that it is not exhausting to read but again, I could go on forever. Especially on a topic such as fertility issues where it is the most challenging thing we have experienced. Anyways: here it goes.

My wife and I had been trying to conceive a child for two years and we had no luck. We understood that we might be facing challenges because of the endometrioses that my wife had on the outside of her right ovary which also lead to fully blocked fallopian tubes. This is what led us to Santa Barbara Fertility. Upon our first consultation visit with Dr. Allen we felt as if we were talking to a person who really cared about who we are and came across as if there was nothing more important in his life than helping us have a complete family. The consultation lasted about an hour and he covered everything from how a child is conceived naturally to our very last question. (Side note: Dr. Allen finishes EVERY conversation that he has with you by saying ” Do you have any more questions?”). Once the consultation visit was finished we left feeling relieved, inspired, appreciative, and hopeful that one day we would have a child. We left with a plan to start the IvF process within the month and meet again soon. The next visit my wife had an ultrasound with blood work and we left starting birth control in order to time her cycle. (Side note: this review probably should not consist of how the entire IvF cycle works so I am going to skip ahead). When the time was right, we met with Nicole and she went through with us how to administer all the medications that my wife will need over the next 10 days. Nicole was so sweet and incredibly patient with us and answered every question. She taught me how to administer the shots and explained the whole process very well. Next, I was working on the insurance part of this process and Santa Barbara Fertility was so helpful. Our insurance was lame and continued to give us the run around but SB Fertility worked with us every step of the way. Stacy who did the blood work has great skills and was really good at drawing blood. She never missed and the process was quick and painless (or so I heard). Adrianna was great scheduling us appropriately because we had to travel for 2+ hours to make each appointment. When we arrived at Santa Barbara Fertility each time, the same staff always greeted us. One of our favorite parts from the experience was this memory: One day, my wife was having an ultra sound and Dr. Allen had to push pretty hard to find the right spot to see all the follicles. My wife is incredibly tough but at one point she was obviously in pain. So Dr. Allen says, “Are you doing ok?” M. says, (with a tone) ” yea I’m ok” then Dr. Allen says something to the degree of “I understand that is code for it hurts but your dealing with the pain, sorry I’m almost done”. I mean, Dr. Allen is such a bad ass because not only does he understand how the patient is actually feeling, he acknowledges that it is uncomfortable and he is doing the best he can. Dr. Allen has the best bedside manner ever! From my 28 years of going to Dr.’s for different reasons, no Dr. has ever compared to Dr. Allen. Once the eggs were retrieved next came my part in this whole process. Nothing is more embarrassing to a male than having to deposit specimen in a Dr. office but I assure any male readers of this review, Santa Barbara Fertility made it as comfortable as possible. There is a specific room for this in their office and it is in the far back room for maximum privacy. Then came the moment to allow the eggs and sperm to work together. Our embryos made it to a day 5 transfer. When it came time for implantation, Dr. Allen gave us all the information and completely allowed us to make the decision on how many embryos to transfer. He gave us his recommendation, the recommendation of the American Fertility Association but encouraged to do what we felt was right. As of today, my wife is 6 weeks pregnant and feeling great. The take away notes from this experience with Dr. Allen and the entire team at Santa Barbara Fertility were how comfortable and safe we felt. There was never one moment that we felt unsure about the next step or what was happening. We were constantly informed and most importantly, we are ecstatic that my wife is pregnant (on our first attempt no less).